People exchange information or provide commentary about business services, products, people, and agencies on social media or social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace, Pinterest, Spoke, YouTube, Blogs, RSS, search sites (Google, Bing, etc.), etc. Generally, a user of the social networking site employs an alias to mask his or her identity. Thus, social networking sites generally inhibit identifying a user. Comments can be made anonymously, often prompting a user to be forthright and candid about interactions with companies without fear of reprisal or consequence. For example, a consumer John Smith may use the alias “RocknRoll” on a social media site and complain about bad service at “Music World.” Unless John chooses to reveal his real name, it can be extremely difficult to determine John's identity from the alias RocknRoll. Mapping the alias to a known customer of a company based on a specific transaction may not be possible. It also might be difficult if not impossible to map a threat to a person who made it.
When people use social networking sites to comment negatively about financial and banking business transactions, a company has a vested interest in identifying these users and addressing issues quickly and directly. Negative comments about service and products can seriously hurt or even ruin a business. The inability to determine the identity of a user presents a challenge to directly addressing the problem.
Additionally, threats may be publicly and anonymously made on the social networking site to avoid retribution or potential legal action. A person who comments or threatens may use key words to make the threat more credible, but anonymity may make identifying the person difficult. Agencies would like to be able to deal with threats made on social networking sites the same way they have been able to deal with similar threats in traditional media. Communications on social networking sites may also provide real-time information on disasters or other escalating situations. Without a way to validate the identity of the person posting, it may be difficult to determine how credible the information is and what assistance should be provided.